Flanker is looking forward to a warm reception in Cardiff for his resilient
team's first Six Nations match of the season on Feb 6

Chris Robshaw said that England went back to basics to against Australia to secure a victory that the captain admitted will provide a crucial platform going into World Cup year.

After defeats by New Zealand and South Africa followed by a patchy win over Samoa, Robshaw effectively conceded that this was a game England dare not lose. The pressure will only increase when England kick off their World Cup campaign against Fiji on September 18 and Robshaw believes the experience of having their backs against the wall during the past four weeks will serve them well in 10 months’ time.

“It’s just great to see how the guys have responded to it,” Robshaw said. “Now we know that if it happens again the guys aren’t going to crumble, they are going to stand up to it. They’re going to train smarter and find ways of winning. When you get to a World Cup you can’t afford to lose one or two games because then you are packing your bags and watching everyone else on TV. We’re really pleased with how we solved things but we can’t wait until Monday mornings to do that, myself and other leaders have to solve it in the here and now.

“It was an outstanding performances from the guys. I thought they all put their hands up and it needed to be done for the goodness of the side. For us it was very much about winning today. If we had lost and looked back over this series having lost three out of four it would have been tough to take, especially being here at Twickenham, and especially with what’s happening next year.”

There were parallels with two years ago when England salvaged another disappointing autumn campaign in which they had lost to Australia and South Africa by beating New Zealand 38-21, a performance that remains the high point of Stuart Lancaster’s tenure. This victory against Australia was more prosaic based on dominance up front, particularly at the scrum, allied with smart kicking of their half backs, George Ford and Ben Youngs, as England reverted to their traditional strengths.

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“It would be nice to not lose two games before potentially changing something, but maybe we overcomplicated things early in the campaign or we weren’t quite ready, I’m not sure,” Robshaw said. “There will always be different ways of looking at things. Over the last two weeks we’ve probably simplified things a bit and it showed with the way we played.

“It still wasn’t as smooth as we’d like, but it was smooth enough today. We know it’s not all smelling of roses and there are things to work on and improvements to be made, but still extremely pleased – and a huge amount of relief to finish like that.

“I’m extremely pleased with how the front five have gone all through the series, not just today. I think they all put their hand up extremely well and potentially got us out of trouble at times and turned the screw on other teams at times. And let’s be frank about it, we’ve played some of the best packs in world rugby over the past four weeks and extremely pleased of how the front five have done us proud.”

While the tight five are exempt from criticism, Robshaw admits there are plenty of other areas that England will need to improve before they open their RBS Six Nations campaign against Wales on February 6 in their first return to Cardiff since their 30-3 mauling in 2013.

“I think we are ahead of where we were at the start of the autumn,” Robshaw said. “We all know we didn’t start well – for whatever reason, we’re not quite sure. Things didn’t go as smoothly as we would have liked. We felt we’d got back to where we need to be but it is about going up another gear. We’re on the back of a win and we’ll take it into Wales. We get to kick off the Six Nations in Cardiff – it was a challenge for us last time. I’m sure they will welcome us with open arms!”